Brentford 0 Wrexham FC 1: Mark Currie’s verdict

WREXHAM player-manager Andy Morrell missed out on the chance to spend a weekend with Santa Claus, but his team clubbed together to give him an early Christmas present in the shape of Saturday’s FA Cup second round victory at Brentford.

WREXHAM player-manager Andy Morrell missed out on the chance to spend a weekend with Santa Claus, but his team clubbed together to give him an early Christmas present in the shape of Saturday’s FA Cup second round victory at Brentford.

The Dragons’ boss returned to an empty house following the hard-fought but well-deserved success at Griffin Park because his wife and two children were enjoying a weekend break in Lapland.

Confessing he would rather have been with them, Morrell nevertheless took a huge amount of satisfaction from another sterling performance by his players, who dominated an hour of the battle with their League One opponents and then mounted a superb rearguard action to ensure progress to the third round of the competition for the first time in five seasons.

He said: “My family are away in Lapland to see Santa so would I rather be there with my kids than here? It’s a good question and I probably would, to be fair, because I was gutted I couldn’t go.

“But that’s football and they will be delighted for me.”

A not so happy Brentford manager Uwe Rosler admitted his team didn’t deserve anything from the game and claimed they were beaten before a ball had been kicked.

“They (Wrexham) were making lots of noise in the tunnel, they were shouting and screaming, and they reminded me of Wimbledon,” said the former Manchester City striker.

“I had watched them and knew they were a good team and unfortunately they outnumbered us in midfield,

“We didn’t create anything, they outfought us and although the second half was much better our supporters were not very happy at the end.”

No surprise there then and, in common with their team, the home fans were also made to feel second best by a sizeable and vociferous army of more than 700 travelling fans, who kept up a constant barrage of noise from the first blast of the referee’s whistle to the last.

Their reward – and Wrexham’s – was a stunning 32nd minute goal from midfielder Jamie Tolley, who ended a personal three-month drought with a quality strike from 25 yards that gave home goalkeeper Richard Lee absolutely no chance as it flew into the top corner.

The former Wales under-21 international, who has made something of a habit during his career of scoring spectacular goals, said: “The way it is with these new footballs as long as you catch them sweet they are going to fly somewhere near the goal and luckily enough I caught it sweet and watched it fly in the top corner.

“I don’t score tap-ins do I? I’ve been on a bit of a drought for me and I was thinking I needed to get one, but hopefully I can get back to scoring in the league now.

“I think I’ve been unlucky in a number of games with the keeper making saves so I’ve been getting in there and I knew the goals would come at some point. I watched it all the way in and as soon as I caught it I knew it was going in.”

It was a lead the Dragons had to defend for an hour but Tolley said his team-mates had expected to come under pressure at some stage of the afternoon.

“I think in coming here we knew it was going to be backs to the wall in periods of the game,” he added.

“In the second half they changed their formation, which was a compliment to us, and we defended well. We’ve done that pretty much all season and it turned out well for us.”

Morrell’s men responded to the wall of sound behind Joslain Mayebi’s goal with a high-tempo opening to the game that made no concessions to the supposed gulf in class between the teams and Adrian Cieslewicz should have given the visitors the perfect start after four minutes when he beat two defenders, but dragged a poor shot wide of the target.

With Tolley, Lee Fowler and Jay Harris working overtime to deny Brentford extended spells of possession the home side’s best chance of establishing a measure of control lay in set-piece situations.

And when Nat Knight-Percival fouled Sam Saunders, the midfield man picked himself up to bend his 17th minute free kick around the wall, only to be denied by a fully-stretching Mayebi, who turned the shot behind for a corner.

Wrexham’s growing confidence was epitomised by a superb break in the 27th minute when a clearance by Harris was taken on by Jake Speight, who brought Cieslewicz into play and maintained his run into the penalty area where he was inches away from connecting with the winger’s return pass.

A superb tackle by Mark Creighton on Mike Grella saved Knight-Percival’s blushes following a rare error and the visitors finally made the breakthrough when Neil Ashton’s short corner was floated into the box by Fowler.

The defensive header out fell nicely for Tolley, who waited for the bounce before smashing the ball past Lee, and the Dragons finished the opening period well on top and looking comfortable.

There were chances too after the break to double the lead, midfielder Harris bringing a save from Lee before striker Danny Wright was close to meeting another Fowler cross at the back post and Knight-Percival’s overhead kick only just cleared the Brentford crossbar.

Cieslewicz, whose pace and control caused the home defence all sorts of problems throughout the afternoon, was again let down by his finishing in the 53rd minute, rounding off another incisive break by rolling his shot narrowly wide of the far post.

And Wrexham’s failure to close out the game provided encouragement for the Bees, who at last began to make inroads and forced their opponents onto the back foot.

But they too lacked a killer touch in front of goal, Gary Alexander heading straight at Mayebi, whose presence and handling inspired confidence in his colleagues, particularly when he turned Niall McGinn’s effort for one of seven second half corners.

There was one heart-stopping moment when the keeper flapped at a Saunders free kick, but the ever-reliable Creighton was on hand to clear the danger.